PersonalProductivity

+ Insider Tips Expert advice to help you optimize performance

+ Valuable Insights Eye-opening descriptions of poorly documented or undocumented features and procedures

+ Unbeatable Advice Real-world workarounds and little-known tips and techniques

MAURA NEVEL THOMAS

DO WHAT YOU NEVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE WITH YOUR TIME AND ATTENTION…AND REGAIN CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE

EE

Excerpt from Personal Productivity Secrets. Copyright Wiley Publishing. Posted with permission.

Contents

Read This First xxi

3Pa r t I M a n agIng Your at tentIon 1

3Chapter 1 Stop trying to Manage Your time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Modern Technology: Advantages and Disadvantages 5

The Truth about Multitasking 7

Self-Induced ADD 9

Information Overload in the Attention Age 12

The Impact of Focus 13

Sit! Stay! Sleep. 14

Stop Working on the Wrong To-Do List 15

Control Your Attention, Control Your Life 16

Summary 17

Quick Tips 17

Endnotes 18

3Chapter 2 Changing Your Mind: attention Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Solving the Right Problem 22

Supporting versus Sabotaging 23

Learning to Incorporate Change 26

Reconciling Your “Planner” and Your “Doer” 28

It Matters Where You Start 30

Attending to Your Goals 32

Controlling the Details 34

Being Realistic about “One More Thing” 35

Summary 36

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xvi Contents

Quick Tips 37

Endnotes 37

3Pa r t I I the eMP ow ered ProduC tI v It Y S YS teM 3 9

3Chapter 3 empowering Your Productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Avoiding the Lion Syndrome 42

Picking the Right Spot on the Eisenhower Matrix 43

Summary 52

Quick Tips 53

Endnotes 53

3Chapter 4 Controlling the Constant Chatter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Organizing Your Mental Clutter 56

Gaining Clarity 56

Five Ways to Organize 57

Categorizing Avoids Chaos 61

Getting Specific 67

Summary 69

Quick Tips 70

3Chapter 5 Supplementing Brainpower with technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Necessary Components of a Good Set of Productivity Tools 72

Choosing the Most Relevant Tools 77

Why Tools Are Not Enough 82

Summary 83

Quick Tips 83

3Chapter 6 Clearing Your Mind Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

You Need a Vacation. . . 86

Begin Your Move 87

Unleashing Your Inner Genius 88

Manage One Life, Not Two 89

Keeping Track of It All 90

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xviiContents

Capturing Thoughts 91

Summary 92

Quick Tips 93

Endnotes 93

3Chapter 7 Capture, Store, act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Getting Started with Electronic PIMs 96

Setting Up Outlook 98

Setting Up iCal 104

Setting Up Google 109

Summary 113

Quick Tips 113

3Chapter 8 Clearing Your Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Eliminating the Three Causes of Clutter 116

Getting a Grip on Paper by Filing Effectively 117

Learning a Strategy 118

Getting the Right Gear 124

Putting the Pieces Together 128

Assembling Your File System 134

Summary 136

Quick Tips 137

3Chapter 9 emerging Concepts in Information Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Can You Go Paperless? 140

Ambient Information 143

Summary 144

Endnotes 145

3Chapter 10 the t .e .S .S .t .™ Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Deciding on Action 148

Delegating Is Empowering 153

Storing or Trashing 154

Summary 156

Quick Tips 157

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xviii Contents

3Chapter 11 Controlling Your email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

The Role of Email in a Modern Life 160

Three Types of “Checking” Email 161

Replacing Your Old Tricks 164

Developing a Better System 166

To Get Less Email, Send Less Email 170

Three Things You Shouldn’t Do 172

Three Things You Should Do 174

Assessing the Costs of Your Current Email Habits 176

Getting to Zero 177

Summary 177

Quick Tips 178

Endnotes 178

3Chapter 12 defending Your attention using technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Breaking Bad Habits 180

Reducing “Noise” and Exerting More Control 181

Picking the Right Email Client 184

Creating Tasks from Email 185

Control Your Email: Shut Off the Automatic Download 193

Summary 195

Quick Tips 196

3Pa r t I I I tool S for SuC Ce S S 19 7

3Chapter 13 Mastering Your technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Making Better Use of Your Calendar 200

Knowing the Secrets 205

A Great Add-On 213

Being Prepared and Flexible On the Go 214

Staying on Track 217

Don’t Take Chances with Your System 219

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xixContents

Summary 220

Quick Tips 221

3Chapter 14 Managing new Communication—Social Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

“Socializing” Communication 224

Control or Be Controlled 225

Know What You’re Doing 228

Summary 228

Quick Tips 229

3Chapter 15 Implications for groups and teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Productivity and Company Culture 232

Is a PIM Enough? 237

Summary 239

Quick Tips 239

Endnotes 240

3Chapter 16 Modern Conveniences—reviews and recommendations . . . . . 241

Your Portable PIM 242

Lifestyle, Shopping, and Health 243

Business and Travel 247

Miscellaneous 248

Summary 249

Quick Tips 250

3Pa r t I v a PPendICe S 251

3appendix a recommended Book list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

3appendix B resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Glossary 263

Index 271

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xxi

Read This First

It’s 6:30 a.m. and Ava Bradley’s alarm went off 30 minutes ago, but she fell back to sleep. Now she’s going to be late getting her 12-year-old daughter, Emma, up and out the door for school. It also means that she missed the workout she scheduled in her calendar. “Maybe,” she thinks, “I can get in a yoga class after work.” Ava is a successful insurance agent, in the business for 15 years, with a small office of her own. She has another agent in her office, younger and less experienced, and a part-time office manager.

Ava’s husband, Ben, is a partner in a small law firm, and he’s arriving back home from his run. The Bradleys live just outside of downtown Seattle. As Ben enters the bedroom, Ava asks him to wake Emma and then jumps in the shower—and the usual morning chaos in the Bradley home begins.

Forty-five minutes later, Ava is heading downstairs with her smartphone in her hand, consulting the day’s calendar and scanning through emails. She is dressed and almost ready to leave. She finds Emma sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal with her history book and her laptop open in front of her. Ben is pouring coffee in his travel mug, ready to dash out the door. His smartphone sits on the counter with his email open. “Emma, didn’t you tell me you finished your homework last night?” asks Ava.

“I did, but Lisa texted me this morning that she heard there might be a surprise quiz today. I found a summary of the chapter on Google, so I just need to pull it off the printer before we leave. I’ll memorize it in the car on the way to school.” Ava, chagrined, has a fleeting thought about Emma making her own chapter summary, as her cell phone rings. Without bothering to look at the caller ID, “Hello, this is Ava,” she answers, car-rying Emma’s cereal bowl to the sink. Ben pecks each of their cheeks and mentions something about dinner as he dashes out the door. Morning at the Bradley home. . .

Who This Book Is ForIf you’re reading this book, you can probably relate to the Bradleys’ busy life. Busy lives tend to be complicated. If you don’t have too much going on, you could prob-ably make some notes on a paper calendar and manage just fine; but if you have some combination of a career, a family, ambitious goals, outside obligations, and perhaps a hobby or two, you need a solution that matches the complexity of your life. Given

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xxii Read This First

this scenario, it’s likely that a calendar and and address book, even the electronic versions, just aren’t enough.

When your solution for managing the details of your life doesn’t match the scope and complexity of your life, you have to work harder to keep track of every-thing. “Working harder,” in this case, probably means depending on your brain and doing constant mental gymnastics trying to stay on top of everything. That causes stress—and stress makes you sick.1

A modern assumption of today’s busy, driven professionals seems to be that more work equals more accomplishment. On the contrary, our “working” often means constantly dividing attention among unrelenting incoming demands, with little or no downtime. In addition to making us more impatient and irritable, we are also distracted more easily and frequently, all of which prevent focusing on achieving our significant results.

Many people try to solve this “working harder” problem by purchasing some new software, or a fancy device, or a new app, only to find that they are still struggling. In fact, their struggle is compounded because they now need to figure out how to use the new software, device, or app.. The most important element of using these types of pro-ductivity tools successfully is the “how,” or what I call the process. What these people don’t realize is that the process is the missing piece to using any tool successfully.

Your brain is not the place to manage all the details necessary in the service of your life, so a tool is necessary; but the tool by itself won’t help much. Consider these analogies: Buying a fancy set of clubs, the kind worthy of a PGA golfer, doesn’t make you a better golfer, does it? Similarly, owning an expensive set of cookware and knives won’t make you a better cook. Although I can’t help with your golfing or your cooking, I can offer you a useful process for reaping the most productivity and effi-ciency from the tools you have available to you.

What This Book OffersI have been in the productivity industry for almost 20 years. In that time I have assem-bled and refined what I believe to be the most universally useful process for managing the details of a busy life. I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to study many dif-ferent systems and learn from some of the brightest minds in the productivity industry. This education has enabled me to take the best tips and techniques from other experts and systems, create some of my own, and adapt the result to the changing technology of the twenty-first century. The result is my Empowered Productivity™ System. In giving the system a name I chose the word “empowered” because I have come to realize that the

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xxiiiRead This First

secret not only to peak personal productivity, but also to living the life you choose, is control. Specifically, gaining control over your own attention. Control over your own atten-tion puts you back in the driver’s seat of your life; you become empowered.

I’ve read all the most popular books about personal productivity and they all seem to fall into one of three categories:

They are high-level theory about achieving your goals and include very little 33practical application.

They include very detailed instruction but are ambiguous in terms of how 33to apply the instructions to anything but paper, note cards, file folders, and other outdated tools.

They are specific to only one particular product or software and are not uni-33versally applicable.

I wrote this book with the intention of providing a resource that addresses all three of these deficiencies: It’s full of instructions for practical application on the most common, current electronic tools.

Personal Productivity Secrets is divided into four parts: “Managing Your Atten-tion,” “The Empowered Productivity System,” “Tools for Success,” and “Appendices.” In the first part, I demonstrate why you should stop worrying about “time manage-ment” and “information overload.” Continuing to frame your productivity in these outdated ideas is the first hurdle to overcome in improving your productivity. I dis-cuss the most common habits that sabotage your productivity and your attention, rather than support them.

The second part outlines the Empowered Productivity System methodology, which is a step-by-step process for managing your attention and regaining control over all the details of your life. This process is not dependent upon any specific tool—it is univer-sally applicable, but this part also walks you through the steps to apply the process to several common software programs, devices, and apps that you might already be using.

Part III teaches you some techniques for getting the most out of the electronic tools available to you—probably many you already have, some that are free, and some that may have a cost associated with them. You don’t need anything special to take advantage of the book; and you can skip to the sections that are most relevant to you. If you change to different software and devices, the book can still serve as a resource and help you get up and running quickly.

Part IV includes helpful books, websites, and apps to help you develop new habits that will support your productivity. It also includes a glossary to help you understand the many common words and phrases that have a specific meaning in the context of the

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xxiv Read This First

Empowered Productivity System and this book. The glossary provides contextual defi-nitions plus the definitions, of general terminology, especially related to computers, that you might otherwise find confusing.

You can find additional information for the book at the companion website, www.personal-productivity-secrets.com, and on my company website at www.RegainYourTime.com.

What’s Your Significant Result?Have you ever had the experience of going to work knowing that there are just two or three really important things you had to get done that day? They are weighing on you as you start your day, but before you know it, it’s 4:00 p.m. and you’re dis-mayed (and a little astonished) to discover that you haven’t had a chance to tackle those things yet! This is a common scenario, and it means you’ve allowed other people’s demands and priorities to dictate your day. At the micro level, it is detri-mental to your productivity.

Now consider another common scenario: Have you ever reflected at the end of a year, or around New Year’s Day, or on a birthday, and found yourself thinking, “Wow, another year has gone by, and I still haven’t made any real progress on X.” You haven’t gotten the promotion, you didn’t go back to school, you didn’t start that side busi-ness, you’ve made no progress on your “bucket list.” If you’ve ever found yourself a little disappointed that you haven’t made any progress on those larger life goals, then you have experienced this lack of control at the macro level.

If you allow too much time to go by without exerting any control over your attention, not only does it affect your productivity on a daily basis, you may even-tually realize that your life is not on the track you originally intended. Your days are the building blocks of your life. If you manage your attention and what it pro-duces each day, then you can orient your productivity toward the larger, and more rewarding, goals of your life.

The goal of the book is to help you become more productive so that you can accomplish more. My approach, however, is not to help you just check more things off your to-do list every day; it is not “doing” just for the sake of it.

What does productivity really mean? The dictionary defines the word productive as “achieving or producing a significant amount or result.” Isn’t that the ultimate goal? If you’re reading a book like this, it’s probably because you are motivated to accomplish

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xxvRead This First

things: to “produce a significant result;” to aspire to lofty goals and achieve them; to make things happen, to design the life you enjoy living. That’s how I define productiv-ity, and that’s why I love to study it and continually improve my own. I wrote this book to share with you what I’ve learned along the way, in the hope that it will help you empower your productivity and accomplish more than you ever thought possible with your time, your attention, and your life!

Features and Icons Used in This BookAt the end of each chapter is a “Quick Tips” section that contains a short summary of many of the important points in the chapter. These tips each contain fewer than 140 characters so that you can conveniently share the productivity tips with your followers on Twitter. I’d love to know if you are finding the information worthy of sharing, so please include #Productivity Secrets and/or my username, @mnthomas, if you have room.

The following features and icons are used in this book to help draw your atten-tion to some of the most important and useful information and some of the most valuable tips, insights, and advice that can help you unlock the secrets of personal productivity.

SidebarS

Sidebars like this one feature additional information about topics related to the nearby text.

TIP The Tip icon indicates a helpful trick or technique.

NO TE The Note icon points out or expands on items of importance or interest.

Watch for 33margin notes like

this one that

highlight some key

piece of information,

that elaborate more

fully on a point,

or that direct you

to other relevant

information.

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xxvi Read This First

CROSSREF The Cross-Reference icon points to chapters where additional information can be found.

WARNING The Warning icon warns you about possible negative side effects or precautions you should take before making a change.

Endnotes

1. Emily Deans, M.D., “How Stress Makes You Sick and Sad,” Psychology Today, March 27, 2011, www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201103/how-stress-makes-you-sick-and-sad.

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Part I

Managing Your attention

ChaPter 1 Stop Trying to Manage Your Time

ChaPter 2 Changing Your Mind: Attention Management

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1C h a P t e r 1

Stop Trying to Manage Your TimeI n t h I s C h a P t e r

Regaining control of your attention33

The lure of multitasking33

New kinds of ADD33

Focusing and choosing33

“Time management” is a twentieth-century term that has far

outlived its usefulness. The longer into the twenty-first century people continue to frame

their productivity in terms of “time management,” the less efficient they will be. That’s

because the traditional tools of time management are a calendar and a clock. However,

rapid technological advances have made our lives far too complex to manage with these

tools. Putting something on your calendar doesn’t mean it will occur, and “making time”

for something doesn’t guarantee that you’ll have the experience you intended.

For example, say you schedule coffee with a colleague, but while you are together, she

can’t keep her eyes off her mobile device because she’s checking her email, texting some-

one, or searching the Internet for the answer to a question you posed. If she’s doing all

that, chances are good that she is not truly present in her experience with you. In other

words, it would probably not be the meaningful dialogue that you intended when you

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4C h a P t e r 1   Stop Trying to Manage Your Time

scheduled the date, but rather an annoying waste of time. Does this scenario sound familiar? It appears to be a common occurrence in both social and business interac-tions of the twenty-first century; you “spent the time” together, but because at least one person’s attention was lacking, it didn’t have the desired effect.

It’s hard to blame your coffee guest for her lack of focused attention. Today, many people carry “the world in their pocket” in terms of Internet access on their smart-phones. With Internet access, you have at your fingertips the answer to virtually any question that pops into your head, random or otherwise. Whether you want to know about the weather or the theory of relativity, the answer is just a few taps away. And not only do you have to contend with your own curiosity and your own scattered attention, but advertisers know that human beings are evolutionarily wired to respond to lights, color, sound, and movement, which are all features that your smartphone offers. Every business in the world is currently studying how to use your smartphone to direct your attention to its service or product.

Advertisers attempt to steal your attention in myriad ways: music and messages played in public places, on-hold advertising, scrolling marquees, commercials and product placement in television, radio, and movies. Many of us make the advertiser’s job easier by frequently having a screen in front of us, so that we are constantly sub-jected to banner advertising on virtually every single web page, in-app advertising on handheld devices and tablets, and even messages in our car from our navigation system or in-vehicle security device! Matt Richtel, technology writer for The New York Times, calls this “screen invasion.” 1 Unfortunately, this invasion of screens, and the resulting distraction, is the cost of indulging in the conveniences and technological progress of the last 50 years.

Given all these demands on your attention, this book proposes that how you spend your time only matters to the extent that you also apply your attention.

The more I study productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness, the more I am con-vinced that the secret to defending against the constant demands on your attention is learning control—and the most important place for you to exert control is over your own attention. When you control your attention, you control your life. In the twenty-first century, “time management” and “information management” are no longer as important as attention management.

This chapter illustrates why this issue has serious implications for your pro-ductivity, and how this shift in your thinking from time management to attention management affects your effectiveness. This chapter also teaches you how and why to exert more control over your own attention.

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5Modern Technology: Advantages and Disadvantages

Modern Technology: AdvAnTAges And disAdvAnTAgesNew communication technologies are vastly changing the landscape of human interac-tion. Social media is the latest incarnation of Internet communication that has volleyed the power back and forth from the hands of the powerful into the hands of the people. In medieval times, information was distributed from the seats of power. The invention of the printing press then provided access to creation and dissemination of information by citizens. The advent of radio and television created one-way media that have enabled those who can afford to broadcast to create “mass audiences” that are passive recipients of content, a scenario that enables powerful channels of propaganda.

Chat rooms were among the first Internet technologies that enabled one-to-many communication, and they have evolved into social media in its current form (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and so on), which is the greatest opportunity yet invented for everyday people to have a voice and make themselves heard. These technologies allow back-and-forth communication in real time, literally shaping the evolution of events. The 2011 uprisings in the Middle East and the Occupy Wall Street movement are examples of situations that are propelled and nourished by social media.

Social networking has changed the face of business as well. Although the late 1990s marked the emergence of “corporate complaint” websites, consumer complaints gained even more power with the growth of Twitter. Now one person having a bad experience with a company can share his or her negative feelings with millions of people in a matter of hours. Tweets appear in Internet search results and end up as stories in mainstream media. As a result, many large corporations have employees dedicated to controlling bad press and resolving customer issues specifically on Twitter and use their corporate Face-book pages as interactive, public customer-service portals.

More “Friends” = More DistractionsThe explosion of opportunities to connect with real and virtual friends online has dramatically affected the number of people with whom we share our attention. One-to-many communication has changed the way we form relationships, removing the obsta-cle of physical distance. Millions of people now connect and share with others globally, creating “friendships” with people they have never met in person. It’s increasingly com-mon for relationships begun online to result in meaningful partnerships and marriage. Social media has even been credited with preventing suicides. Defining relationships has always been somewhat subjective, but an entire generation is arguably redefining what it means to be a “friend” and to “like” something.

Social media 33

can be defined as

any type of public,

two-way, one-to-

many technology

application or

platform. Some

examples are

Facebook, Twitter,

blogs, YouTube, Flickr,

and the like.

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6C h a P t e r 1   Stop Trying to Manage Your Time

Social media is changing not only our external realities, but our internal ones as well. The new capability for “live sharing,” broadcasting experiences live and in real time, has led to a concept of self as “becoming externally manufactured rather than internally developed: a series of profiles to be sculptured and refined in response to public opinion. . . .Your psychology becomes a performance.”2 It’s not uncommon these days to be at a concert, conference, or event and find more of the audience live-sharing their experience rather than fully absorbing it.

These changes in the breadth and depth of external relationships we keep updated online have increased the popularity of the field of “attention research.” Journalists and academics alike are studying, discussing, and publishing information about the effects of being so frequently connected to a screen, whether we are in a car, at our desks, or walking down the street. Recent research has found that “when people keep their brains busy with digital input, they are forfeiting downtime that could allow them to better learn and remember information, or come up with new ideas.”3

This advent of social media, which has created a seemingly endless variety of ways to communicate with vast numbers of people continuously and in real time through multiple technologies, is the most recent assault on our ability to control our own attention. The lure of the conversation, of news we might be missing, be it good or bad, often proves impossible to resist, making the task of managing our attention harder than ever.

Digital ConvergenceCurrent studies on productivity and controlling your attention often contain the phrase digital convergence. Digital convergence describes the phenomenon whereby communication and media tools that used to deliver separate and distinct information now deliver the same things. For example, a newspaper used to be different from radio, television, the phone, and the Internet. Now, however, you can access all these technol-ogies through a computer or handheld device. You can get radio programming as a pod-cast or live on the Internet, watch television via Netflix or Hulu, and read digital versions of print newspapers and magazines. You can even socialize with your friends through your device! That’s convergence, and it makes it harder to manage your attention.

For example, if you commit to starting your day not by reacting to email, but instead listening to an educational podcast on the train to work, it takes an enormous amount of awareness and personal control to ignore your email inbox, which is accessible from the same device that delivers the podcast. Now that smartphones have become a central source of information about business, hobbies, socializing, entertainment, news, and recreation, focusing on and attending to only one of those things at a time has become

Also called 33

technology

convergence.

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7The Truth about Multitasking

more challenging. It’s hard to be truly present in your leisure time if you are trying to relax with the same device that also brings you all that other information.

The TruTh AbouT MulTiTAskingNew communication technologies and convenient access to the Internet hold great allure. Reluctant to miss anything, many of us jump from one thought to another, from one task to another, from one device to another. The result is split attention; we’re seemingly doing several things at once, almost simultaneously. This ability to “multitask” was long considered a desirable skill. However, more than a decade ago, one of the first studies of its kind showed that multitasking actually increases the time it takes to complete a task and decreases the quality of output.4 It’s now widely accepted among researchers and scientists that constant multitasking even makes us worse at multitasking!5 In other words, the more multitasking we do, the worse we get. . . at everything.

You might be surprised to learn that there is really no such thing as mental mul-titasking. The human brain can only hold one conscious thought at a time. Common use of the word multitask actually has two distinct meanings. The first is physically doing two things at the same time, and it is hoped that neither task requires too much attention. For example, driving and talking on the phone simultaneously might not be a problem if the conversation is relatively light, you’re on familiar roads, and the traffic isn’t heavy. However, if the road conditions are difficult, such as encoun-tering construction or detours, or the conversation is intense, many people find themselves abandoning one task in order to focus attention on the other. (Do you ever find yourself turning down the radio—or telling your caller you have to hang up—when you’re lost, or when the traffic suddenly gets heavy?)

The second, and more common, use of multitask describes the behavior of switching one’s attention rapidly back and forth between tasks or ideas. The thoughts in our mind can change so fast that it seems like we’re thinking about things simultaneously, but the process is actually linear, called cognitive switching.

Both types of multitasking, physical or cognitive switching, are subject to the finding that they cause an increase in time to completion and a decrease in quality of the tasks.

A study published by the American Psychological Association concluded that the ability to switch between tasks, termed mental flexibility, generally peaks in one’s twenties and then decreases with age.7 The extent to which mental flexibility decreases depends upon the type of tasks being performed. However, the findings of

Using a cell 33phone while driving,

whether it’s hand-

held or hands-free,

delays a driver’s

reactions as much

as having a blood

alcohol concentration

at the legal limit of

.08 percent!)6

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8C h a P t e r 1   Stop Trying to Manage Your Time

this study indicate that it decreases an average of almost 31 percent from a person in her forties to a person in her seventies.

Given all the data arguing against the effectiveness of multitasking, you might think that my advice would be to never multitask. Actually, I’m a big fan of multitask-ing, but the secret to successful multitasking is control. When you choose whether to multitask, instead of doing it out of habit, you’re more likely to be efficient and effec-tive. For example, I often combine tasks that don’t require too much mental energy, such as catching up with a friend by phone while emptying the dishwasher or folding the laundry. Neither of these tasks requires much concentration, and the consequences of distraction are minor (for example, you might have to ask your friend to repeat some-thing, or you might put a dish in the wrong cabinet). Conversely, if you are driving down the highway and you answer the phone out of habit simply because it rings, you have not decided to multitask. You inadvertently relinquished control over the situation.

Do you skim your email while you’re on the phone simply because it’s in front of you? Do you leave your email client open, with messages automatically downloading, all day, even while you’re trying to do other things? How many application windows do you routinely have open on your monitor? If you’re like most people, the answer might be in the double digits. These are all examples of sabotaging your own attention, rather than supporting it. You’ve created a situation where multitasking is virtually mandatory, rather than optional, and despite your intention to focus. Again, you are not deciding; you are relinquishing control.

You can also apply to productivity a useful lesson from martial arts that I have learned. It’s called eliminating chosa—refining your movements to remove wasted effort. Efficiency is useful regardless of its application. In martial arts, conserving your energy by eliminating chosa can provide you with the extra burst you need to win a fight or escape an attacker. When you switch tasks, right in the middle, because something else grabs your attention, you greatly increase the time it takes to com-plete the task, and you decrease the quality of your output, just like wasted move-ment in martial arts. Even when the consequences aren’t dire, you are still expending more effort to get less done. That’s because when you are jumping from task to task, no task is getting your full attention; and it takes some percentage of brainpower to switch among them.

For example, have you ever been engrossed in a document or spreadsheet, and had a pop-up screen of a downloading email cause you to lose your train of thought or neglect to include something you intended? If studies prove that multitasking causes you to take longer and perform worse, yet you find yourself routinely multitasking, this probably means that most tasks you perform are taking you longer than neces-sary. More importantly, what you are putting out into the world might really be only

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9Self-Induced ADD

a fraction of your true talents, skills, and abilities. It’s up to you to decide if that’s all right with you.

Clearly, multitasking has its time and place—the time and place you choose to engage in it. Otherwise, it is probably sabotaging your efforts.

self-induced Add

“All of a sudden, I realized that I had just one week to take my kids school clothes shopping and school supply shopping, get Butter [the dog] to the vet because he can’t seem to stop scratching his ear, meet with the new web designer and get him the materials he’s going to need, and find the time to make and ship two products which I wasn’t expecting orders for. This is in addition to all the other stuff I have to do, like grocery shop, cook, clean up, and spend time with my family.

So what did I do? I freaked out. Instead of getting to work, I sat on the couch and watched talk shows.”

— From the case study of ADD patient “Anna”

Although the details and tasks are different for everyone, this is a familiar tale for those with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Life seems to be rolling along fine and then, out of nowhere, the to-do list seems too big to handle. Panic sets in, and it’s easy to shut down under the weight of the pressure.8

Symptoms of ADD include the following:

Difficulty getting organized33

Chronic procrastination or trouble getting started33

Many projects going simultaneously; trouble with follow-through33

A frequent search for high stimulation33

An intolerance of boredom33

Easy distractibility; trouble focusing attention, tendency to “tune out” or 33drift away in the middle of a page or conversation

Impatient; easily frustrated33

Physical or cognitive restlessness33 9

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10C h a P t e r 1   Stop Trying to Manage Your Time

Given how easily we can access the plethora of communication tools at our disposal, it’s easier than ever to indulge one or all of these tendencies. In addition, the more we do it, the more we are tempted to do it. An ADD diagnosis is typically made when a per-son exhibits at least 12 typical symptoms, and those symptoms remain evident regard-less of the circumstances or environment.

In the field of psychology, there is a concept called intermittent reinforcement that helps us to understand the challenges created by twenty-first century technology. To illustrate this idea, imagine a mouse in a cage. If you drop a food pellet into the cage at the same time every day, the mouse eventually begins to look for the pellet only at the expected time. If, however, you distribute the food pellet at random times throughout the day, the mouse soon begins to look for the pellet virtually all the time. That’s intermittent reinforcement. The mouse doesn’t know when the reward will come, so it is driven to check frequently. Busy people with access to many com-munication tools exhibit the same type of drive. Email, voicemail, and other forms of communication bring good news, neutral news, and sometimes bad news, and we never know which it will be, or when it will come, which creates a strong temptation to check for updates continuously.

When professionals are feeling overwhelmed at work, similar to what Anna expe-rienced, they often “shut down” by reaching for the most convenient distraction—email. Skimming email messages seems like work and satisfies us that we are “busy,” which we mistake for productivity. The email actually serves as a procrastination tool, however, and a way to avoid that overwhelming to-do list. Patricia Wallace, a techno-psychologist who directs the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth program, believes that part of email’s allure—for adults as well as teens—is simi-lar to that of a slot machine. “You have intermittent, variable reinforcement,” she explains. “You are not sure you are going to get a reward every time or how often you will, so you keep pulling that handle. Why else do people get up in the middle of the night to check their e-mail?”10

Like babies, who quickly learn to shift their focus to new information, adults are also tempted to react to what is “new and novel.” Because “new information” is constantly available, and constantly being pushed to us in ways that demand our attention, it’s easy to indulge this behavior of constantly shifting focus. The more we do, though, the more our focus is undermined. Like any other skill, without practice, our ability to focus for any length of time declines. “The more we become used to just sound bites and tweets,” says Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, director of Stanford University’s Impulse Control Disorders Clinic at Stanford University, “the less patient we will be with more complex, more meaningful information. And I do think we might lose the

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11Self-Induced ADD

ability to analyze things with any depth and nuance. Like any skill, if you don’t use it, you lose it.”11

ADD is a clinical condition, usually attributed to a genetic predisposition for lower dopamine levels in the brain, or to brain injury either before or after birth.12 However, ADD is not diagnosed by testing the levels of dopamine in the brain or by determining evidence of brain trauma. ADD is diagnosed only through observing symptoms, but there is increasing evidence of a new cause of ADD symptoms.

Several years ago, Dr. John Ratey, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard, began using the term “acquired attention deficit disorder” to describe the condition of people who are accustomed to a constant stream of digital stimulation and feel bored in the absence of it. Regardless of whether the stimulation is from the Internet, TV, or a cell phone, the brain, he maintains, is hijacked.13 This means we may be actually giving ourselves attention deficit disorder. Another prominent attention researcher, Dr. Edward Hallowell, uses the term attention deficit trait. Unlike attention deficit disorder, or ADD, people are not born with ADT. Rather, he contends, it’s the result of the modern workplace, where the constant and relentless chatter coming from our computers, phones, and other high-tech devices is diluting our mental powers.14 He poses the rhetorical question, “How do you know if you have ADD or a severe case of modern life?”15

Dr. Hallowell notes that ADT isn’t present when people are in a relaxed setting, such as on vacation. Therefore, not only can we give ourselves the symptoms of ADD, it seems that we can cure ourselves of them, too. However, it’s not always as easy as just “putting down the devices.” Both researchers point to behavioral, chemical, and soci-etal influences that combine to make it not only difficult, but also undesirable, to be away from our devices for any length of time. Is it possible that we are actually choos-ing a state of being that most people consider to be an affliction, and take medication to alleviate?

The ability to control one’s attention is required to achieve a state of “flow”—that single-minded immersion and focus described often by athletes or performers as being “in the zone.” Flow is associated with achievement because performance is optimized, but being easily distractible is the antithesis of flow. Consider the control of attention as a scale, with flow at the high end and distraction at the low end (see Figure 1-1). If learning and achievement are maximized at the high end (flow), what does it say about our performance if we are spending more and more time at the low end (distraction), and perhaps even losing our ability to ever achieve the high end?

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12C h a P t e r 1   Stop Trying to Manage Your Time

Control over Your Attention

Distraction

• Chronic procrastination• Difficulty with follow-through• Inability to focus• Impatience

• Optimal learning• Amplified performance• Maximized achievement

Flow

 FIgure 1-1

inforMATion overloAd in The ATTenTion AgeThe buzz phrase of the last decade of the twentieth century was “information over-load.” Digital convergence, the idea that all types of different technologies are merg-ing into one ubiquitous “presence,” means that it’s almost impossible to escape the demands on our attention. It’s true that more information is being created than ever before, and the rate at which this information is being created is faster than at any other time in history; because of this, its value has decreased, as Davenport and Beck so aptly describe in The Attention Economy.16

In fact, the volume of information is not the real problem. The real problem is that this information is no longer passive: It enters our world through multiple com-munication media, be it radio, TV, newspaper, blogs, tweets, emails, text messages, and many other ways. Each medium is pushed to us in ways that are designed to command our attention. After it has done that and the information has entered our consciousness, we need to do something with it. Otherwise, it stagnates and clut-ters our mind and our physical space.

Every technology has one or more features to get your attention, whether it’s by visually attracting you on a monitor or handheld device, or by ringing, buzzing, or vibrating within earshot. Website creators speak in terms of eyeballs (to get you to look at something) and click-throughs (to get you to click on something). Marketers speak in terms of taglines and calls to action (to make you notice and then do some-thing). Have you ever noticed that commercials are louder than the programming? The ability to write “attention-grabbing headlines” is a valuable skill. New ways to get you to notice information are being invented and refined every day. The term “demands on your attention” has never been more appropriate. The following sec-tions describe how you can proactively manage this assault on your senses.

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13The Impact of Focus

The iMpAcT of focusAmerican social scientist Herbert Simon may have been the first to understand the implication of these increasing demands on our attention. In 1971 he wrote, “. . . in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information con-sumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention effi-ciently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”17

We’ve moved into a new era. The Information Age has been replaced by the “Attention Age,” wherein attention is becoming the most valuable commodity, and focus the most valuable skill. However, the ability to focus is like any other skill: Without practice, it is lost. Children show signs of being easily bored without con-stant stimulation,18 and teenagers are scoring poorly on cognitive functioning tests designed to determine their reasoning and critical-thinking skills, the kinds of skills that require deep thought and reflection.19

The benefits of focus are numerous, and focus is likely to be the competitive advan-tage in the coming decades. Whether you’re reviewing sales data to create a strategic plan or helping your child with his homework, the ability to focus determines the qual-ity of the interaction and the final output, sometimes with significant ramifications.

Children are becoming increasingly technologically savvy and more accustomed to media-multitasking; when they enter the workforce this will afford them some advantages in the business world. However, the current generation of adults grew up doing more reading, handwriting, and using their imagination—so they have had more practice focusing than those who are younger. This ability to focus also provides an edge.

When a person can focus for extended periods of time and be quiet, unplugged, and thoughtful, true learning takes place. Not “learning” in the sense of memorizing facts, but making connections between things, performing analysis, and deconstructing an idea.20 For many of today’s children, this high-quality “downtime” is simply no longer part of their daily activities. They acutely experience the “need” for constant stimula-tion and have the technology readily available to indulge it. “Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information. These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement—a dopamine squirt—that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored.”21

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14C h a P t e r 1   Stop Trying to Manage Your Time

If deep thought, contemplation, and reflection are required for learning to occur, and yet our current technological climate makes it increasingly challenging to create the space for this contemplation, what does that say about the future of our ability to learn? Dr. John Dovidio, psychology professor at Yale University, describes it this way:

There is a lot of evidence that suggests that part of learning is taking the time to consolidate, to reflect upon things, to make sure that what we know just has to reverberate enough in our head for it to stay there. That’s a simple way of saying it. There’s a lot of work that also shows that there are these times that we develop insights by not actively thinking about something, but different pieces, or different elements to the solution of a problem just appear to us through insight, and not in a logical fashion. And this insight comes usually during those periods following consolidation and reflection, where you have to become inwardly focused to start thinking about the thoughts, and then those thoughts can come to coalesce in some unique, synthetic way that becomes a creative insight. But if we’re always focused outward, we’re not going to do as much of that. . .we’re going to rely on creativity coming from the outside rather than from the inside.

This “quiet time,” when the brain has an opportunity to grab hold of an idea and let it ruminate, consciously or subconsciously, has consequences that go beyond effec-tiveness or quality of output. It affects the very way we learn and grow as people.

siT! sTAy! sleep.Until this point, I’ve been describing all the external demands on your attention. How-ever, you are actually the source of many demands—interrupting yourself with curiosity about unanswered questions, thrill-seeking/socializing/what-am-I-missing syndrome, incomplete tasks, commitments, responsibilities, uncaptured ideas, and things you aren’t doing now. Many people are unable to sleep because they cannot silence their overstimulated brains. This is a symptom of these constant internal demands—the men-tal gymnastics we do daily in order to keep our busy lives flowing smoothly, to get every-thing done, to not let anything slip through the cracks, and to not drop any of the balls we’re trying to juggle. Mental stress is a main contributor to the pressures of life that busy people experience—that underlying anxiety about all the things you are not doing, whether it’s an expense report, the laundry, or starting that new business.

Compounding the problem is the fact that the brain is not very obedient. Thoughts flow in and out without prompting from the conscious mind. Often the very act of trying to recall something is the exact impediment to being able to do

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15Stop Working on the Wrong To-Do List

so. You can’t reach into your mind and pluck out the exact piece of information that you need at exactly the moment that you need it. We have all experienced this when trying to remember the name of an acquaintance, or when we want to tell someone something but can’t recall what at the moment. It is that annoying experience of having something at the tip of your tongue; but no matter how hard you try, your brain just doesn’t obey.

Knowing how to minimize your own mental interruptions is one of the most impor-tant factors in controlling your own attention. It enables you to be in complete control of everything on your plate: what you are responsible for, what you want to get done, whatever commitments you’ve made, keeping any dates you’ve agreed on, any great idea you plan to pursue. The details you need to manage in the service of a busy life are endless and sometimes overwhelming. The way to exert control over these innumerable details—to achieve peace of mind, stop your brain from spinning, to reduce the stress—is to capture all of them, in the same place, in a logical way, that makes each one easy to access and act upon. This gives you a way to know, at a glance, what you aren’t doing now, so that you can relax and give your complete attention to whatever you are doing. When you have captured everything in a reliable way that you can trust, your mind will quiet down, and your ability to focus will be enhanced. This enables you to support your own attention, rather than sabotage it.

sTop Working on The Wrong To-do lisTOne of the goals of managing both the external and internal demands for your attention is to give you the ability to be proactive rather than being constantly reactive. When we lack a clear understanding of the most important tasks to which we need to give our attention, we often succumb to the temptation of constant reaction. When there’s no clear “master list” of your true priorities, it’s tempt-ing to work on whatever is easiest or most distracting at the moment—whether that’s email, a ringing phone, or the beep of a text message. Surrendering to these demands means that you are spending too much time reacting.

When you are reacting, you aren’t really choosing. Or, at best, you are choosing from a limited set of options, most of which typically reflect other people’s priorities. In other words, you are relinquishing control. You’re not making a decision based on all your options—including, most importantly, the things that you have determined are important. Instead, you are responding to a limited subset of options that reflect how other people want you to spend your time: answering their emails, solving their problems, satisfying their needs.

Capturing and 33

organizing all of

the details of your

life are foundational

processes of

the Empowered

Productivity™

System. You can

find specific details

and step-by-step

instructions in Part II,

“The Empowered

Productivity System.”

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16C h a P t e r 1   Stop Trying to Manage Your Time

It’s easy to spend your time simply reacting to all of the demands on your atten-tion, but the result is simply activity, rather than productivity. If you work in a busy office, you are likely familiar with the following experience: You spend a morning, or an afternoon, or even entire days or weeks performing many tasks—answering emails, listening to voicemails, returning calls, attending meetings, dealing with co-worker interruptions, and so on. When you reflect on that time, however, you real-ize that you never had any unscheduled time to accomplish items on your own to-do list, leaving you with that unproductive feeling of having accomplished very little, despite the fact that you were always busy.

In the book Rapt, Winifred Gallagher discusses the fact that, like time and money, attention is a finite resource, and you must choose how you want to invest your cog-nitive cash. Expanding on this analogy, financial gurus often say that in order to gain control over your finances, you must “pay yourself first.” I believe the same is true for your attention.

When you find yourself substituting busyness with progress, you might be inad-vertently working on everyone else’s to-do lists. This is certainly beneficial to your cooperation with co-workers, but constantly reacting prevents your to-do list from getting any shorter.

conTrol your ATTenTion, conTrol your lifeIn addition to its implications for learning, the ability to manage your attention can also influence your happiness. There is ample research showing that exerting control over the circumstances around us—and, indeed, even the perception of control—has a positive effect on happiness.22

The dictionary defines control as “command or mastery.” The opposite is helpless-ness, powerlessness, or relinquishment. Another definition of control is to “have charge of,” which is the opposite of abandoning, forsaking, or giving up. When you constantly react, you relinquish or abandon your own intentions for those minutes, hours, or days. What you want to achieve is results that have significance to you. To do that, it is necessary to be proactive, not reactive.

Twentieth-century philosopher William James said, “My experience is what I agree to attend to.” Said another way: We have experiences based on the things to which we give our attention. For example, if you enjoy fishing, you probably spend time consuming information about fishing, in the form of magazines or blogs, talk-ing with people about fishing, creating relationships based around fishing, and spending leisure time engaged in activities that include fishing. In other words,

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17Quick Tips

because you enjoy fishing, you give it your attention, and therefore you have experi-ences based on it.

However, your experiences determine your life, so if you don’t exert the discipline to successfully manage all of the constant and increasing demands on your attention, you run the risk of never choosing where your attention goes. Instead, you squander your time by submitting to the external noise and clutter. Without even realizing it, you might inadvertently give your attention to other things and find many years later that the life you lived wasn’t the one you would have chosen.

The bottom line is this: if you don’t control your attention, you don’t control your life. Because we are happier when we are in control of our lives, it follows that the more you choose what you attend to (that is, where your attention goes), the happier you are likely to be.

suMMAryAs we begin the journey of managing our attention, we spent Chapter 1 talking about all the forces we compete with to take back control. While the external distractions of smartphones and social media are true sources of self-induced ADD, internal distrac-tions also play a significant role. From our own tendencies toward self-interruption to the temptation of multitasking, we are often the cause of much of the stress in our lives. What is becoming clear, however, is that the ability to focus may well be more than just the currency of success in the twenty-first century; it may also hold a key to our own happiness and well-being.

Quick TipsThe following are some important points from this chapter (also suitable for tweeting). For more information on Twitter, including relevant usernames and hashtags, please refer to the “Read This First” chapter.

Consider your “attention management” instead of your time management.33

If you feel like you have ADD, it might just be situational, caused by YOU!33

When you are always reacting, you are relinquishing control!33

Ability to focus may be 21st century’s rarest and most valuable skill.33

Attention

Experiences

LifeFIgure 1-2

Reacting 33is relinquishing

control, which can

lower your sense

of well-being and

negatively affect

your happiness.

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18C h a P t e r 1   Stop Trying to Manage Your Time

Are you prioritizing your own to-do list, or someone else’s?33

Constantly reacting means prioritizing others’ to-do lists over your own.33

You have two types of distractions to manage for peak productivity: internal 33and external.

Distraction completely prevents flow.33

endnoTes 1. Terry Gross, “Digital Overload: Your Brain on Gadgets,” Fresh Air, National

Public Radio, August 24, 2010, http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=129384107.

2. Sherry Turkle, interview by Peggy Orenstein, “I Tweet, Therefore I Am,” The New York Times, June 30, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/magazine/01wwln-lede-t.html.

3. Matt Richtel, “Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime,” The New York Times, August 24, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/technology/25brain.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=technology.

4. “Is Multitasking More Efficient? Shifting Mental Gears Costs Time, Especially When Shifting to Less Familiar Tasks,” American Psychological Association, August 5, 2001, http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2001/08/ multitasking.aspx.

5. “Distracted by Everything,” Frontline: Digital Nation, February 2, 2010, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/.

6. U.S. Department of Transportation, Distraction.gov, http://www.distraction.gov/stats-and-facts/#did.

7. Nancy S. Wecker, Joel H. Kramer, Bradley J. Hallam, and Dean C. Delis, “Mental Flexibility: Age Effects on Switching,” Journal of Neuropsychology 19, no. 3 (2005): 345–52.

8. Jennifer Koretsky of ADDManagementGroup.com, http://ezinearticles .com/?An-ADD-Case-Study:-When-the-Pace-Picks-Up,-Learn-to-Slow-

Down&id=18854.

9. Dr. Edward Hallowell, “ADD/ADHD Overview,” http://www.drhallowell.com/add-adhd/.

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19Endnotes

10. Claudia Wallis, “genM: The Multitasking Generation,” Time Magazine, March 19, 2006, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1174696,00.html.

11. Kevin Parrish, “Technology May Lead to Attention Deficit Disorder,” Novem-ber 16, 2009, http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Attention-Deficit-Disorder-Technology-Internet,news-5122.html.

12. Ben Martin, Psy.D., “Causes of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD),” June 26, 2011, http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/causes-of-attention-deficit-disorder-adhd/.

13. Matt Richtel, “It Don’t Mean a Thing if You Ain’t Got That Ping,” The New York Times, April 22, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/weekinreview/22richtel.html.

14. Alorie Gilbert, “Newsmaker: Why Can’t You Pay Attention Anymore?,” Cnet, March 28, 2005, http://news.cnet.com/Why-cant-you-pay-attention- anymore/2008-1022_3-5637632.html#ixzz1LnpQCMBd.

15. Edward Hallowell, quoted in Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, Maggie Jackson (Prometheus Books, 2009), 17.

16. Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck, The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business (Harvard Business Press, 2001).

17. H.A. Simon, “Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World,” quoted by Martin Greenberger, Computers, Communication, and the Public Interest (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1971).

18. Marilyn Elias, “So Much Media, So Little Attention Span,” USA Today, March 30, 2005, http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-03-30-kids-attention_x.htm.

19. “Is Technology Producing a Decline in Critical Thinking and Analysis?”, Science Daily, January 28, 2009, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128092341.htm.

20. Researcher Interview Part 5, with Dr. John Dovidio, November 3, 2010, http://regainyourtime.com/interviews/researcher-interview-dovidio-part-5/.

21. Matt Richtel, “Your Brain on Computers: Attached to Technology and Paying a Price,” The New York Times, June 6, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html.

22. Shelley E. Taylor and Jonathon D. Brown, “Illusion and Well-Being: A Social Psychological Perspective on Mental Health,” Psychological Bulletin 103, no. 2 (1988): 196.

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263

Glossary

Many common words and phrases have a specific meaning in the context of the Empowered Productivity™ System and this book. This glossary includes these contextual definitions plus the definitions of general terminology. If you want to find the place in the book where the word or phrase is used in context, refer to the index.

60-Second Rule—An email-processing technique designed to prevent you from pre-maturely skipping a message when you might be able to quickly address the item and dispatch it. This helps you avoid leaving messages in your inbox to be dealt with later, which is inefficient and creates clutter.

Action Files—Files holding those items you are actively working on. These files should mirror your Task categories, including Next Actions, Projects, and Waiting For, and you should store them within easy reach of your workspace.

actionable verb—A verb whose action is clear, such as call, write, or email. (See also vague verb.)

ADD—Attention Deficit Disorder, a biological condition of the brain that causes a person—child or adult—to have poor attention and focusing skills. It is also often characterized by distractibility.

ADT—Attention Deficit Trait, a term coined by psychologist Dr. Edward Hallowell that refers to an acquired and situational form of ADD whereby people who are accustomed to a constant stream of digital stimulation feel bored when it is absent.

ambient information—Information in the environment that is readily available. We react to ambient information without thinking and it does not require conscious interaction. It includes information taken in via the senses in a peripheral way as well as some forms of subtle advertising.

ambient information technology—Devices that allow information to be consumed in the background, sometimes without the conscious knowledge of the recipient.

apps—Usually refers to mobile device software or web-based software.

arbitrary (due dates)—Refers to a due date that is assigned to a task for no particular reason except for its relative importance to the other items on the list.

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264Glossary

Archive Files—Files for documents that you will rarely, or never, need to access. These files are for items you can’t discard for legal or historical reasons or that you don’t want to discard for sentimental reasons. You should store them somewhere other than your immediate workspace, such as in an attic, a garage, or a storage room.

ASCII sort—A way to organize information using the specific way a computer allocates symbols.

Attention Age—The view of industry that suggests that because information is so abundant, its value has decreased, and what is therefore gaining value is the com-modity that information consumes: attention.

attention management—A method of choosing whether to maintain focus on a specific task without acknowledging unwanted interruptions. It is the practice of controlling where your attention is directed rather than succumbing to the constant demands of your surroundings from technology, media, and other people.

balance—1. Ensuring that a particular area of your life does not eclipse all others. 2. The ability to allocate your full attention to the current moment and experience.

brain dump—A process by which you capture your free-flowing thoughts, using a computer or writing utensil and paper, listing one item per line, as a way of freeing your mind of commitments, “to-do” items, and other details you need to remember. A brain dump should be done without initially censoring or organizing thoughts.

calendar items—Activities that must happen on a certain day, or on a certain day and at a certain time. Otherwise some renegotiation is required or negative consequences will result. (See also strong relationship to time.)

cloud—The storage of information online rather than locally on a personal computer.

cognitive switching—Often confused with multitasking. The process of switching back and forth between thoughts or tasks, often so rapidly that it appears that they are being considered simultaneously. This process is actually linear rather than simultaneous, making “multitasking” less effective than most people suppose. (See also mental flex-ibility and multitasking.).

commitments, communication, and information—Collectively, all of the relevant details necessary to manage in the service of a busy life.

crises—Minor or major unforeseen events that disrupt your plans and expectations for a given time period. (See also Eisenhower Matrix.)

CRM—Customer Relationship Manager, software that tracks information and business processes by their relationship to contact details. Examples include Act, Salesforce, and Sugar.

digital convergence—The phenomenon where one device can deliver all of the same infor-mation and experiences that once were distinct and had to be experienced separately.

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265Glossary

discretionary time—Time that can be spent choosing the order and priority of actions; not dictated by a specific schedule or assignment from someone else. For example, a doctor with a full schedule of patients to see at specific times has less discretionary time than a computer programmer who is mostly left alone to do her work.

downtime—Leisure time. May or may not be spent away from technology and the Internet. (See also unplugged.)

early adopters—Those who relish new technology and are typically among the first to purchase and use it.

Eisenhower Matrix—A type of task organization developed by President Dwight Eisenhower that uses four quadrants to prioritize issues and tasks. The quadrants are Low Importance, Low Urgency (see shoulds); High Importance, High Urgency (see crises); Low Importance, High Urgency (items clamoring for your attention that can usually be delayed); and High Importance, Low Urgency (tasks that lead to achieve-ment of your significant results).

electronic paper—An electronic device that provides the ability to create an elec-tronic document without a keyboard by writing using a finger or special implement. (See also stylus.)

Empowered Productivity System—A personal and professional workflow meth-odology for managing and controlling commitments, communication, informa-tion, and all manner of details necessary in the service of your life. Developed by RegainYourTime.com.

external distractions—Interruptions caused by other people or technology. (See also internal distractions.)

flow—Total and energized immersion in the task or activity at hand; a state of maxi-mized achievement.

Future—A category of tasks for goals and activities that are planned to be done but will not be done immediately. Maintaining a Future list is an effective way to avoid forgetting items while still maintaining focus in the present.

Handy Reference Files—Files for items that do not require action but that you might need to access easily. Examples include insurance policies, medical records, product manuals, and warranties. You should store them within easy reach of your workspace.

Handy Reference: Financial—A subset of your Handy Reference Files that you might need to access easily. These files include items related to financial issues, such as paid bills, bank and credit card statements, and investment information.

hashtag—A word or phrase preceded by the pound sign (#), used in Twitter to highlight a keyword or topic and to categorize tweets.

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266Glossary

Information Age—The idea that the late twentieth century and beyond has brought a change in traditional industry to an economy that is primarily based on the exchange and manipulation of data rather than the production and exchange of goods.

information management—Using a system, digital or otherwise, to control and organize information.

intermittent reinforcement—A psychological term whereby information given to us at random times conditions us to look for that information all the time, thereby inter-rupting our ability to focus on the task at hand.

internal distractions—Interrupting thoughts that come unbidden to our minds. They’re unrelated to and distracting from the task at hand. (See also external distractions.)

iOS—The operating system for Apple mobile devices.

jump the thread—An inefficient habit that refers to changing topics during an email exchange without changing the corresponding subject line.

knowledge workers—Professionals who use their knowledge about a particular field (rather than physical skill or manpower) to advance a common goal (for example, growth and profitability of their company).

Lion Syndrome—A feeling of being overwhelmed when considering all the pos-sible things that could be done, while simultaneously feeling a loss of control over how these tasks are accomplished. Derived from an anecdote of an animal tamer’s method of subduing a lion by presenting multiple “threats” (four legs of a stool) simultaneously.

live-sharing—Broadcasting experiences live and in real time.

Location—A group of categories for items on a task list used for tasks or activities that can only be accomplished in a specific physical location; for example, you would assign a category of Home to tasks that you can only complete when you are physically at your home.

mental clutter—The constant and distracting internal chatter about the tasks and activities necessary to keep your life running smoothly.

mental flexibility—The ability to switch between tasks easily, an ability which gener-ally peaks around age 20 and then decreases with age. (See also cognitive switching.)

multitasking—1. The act of physically doing two or more things at the same time; 2. Switching your attention back and forth rapidly between tasks and/or ideas. (See also cognitive switching.)

natural energy patterns—A reference to circadian rhythms, the “body clock” that determines peaks and valleys in energy levels.

Next Actions—A category of items on a task list assigned to single-step activities for which all the information needed to complete them is available and at hand. Next Actions

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267Glossary

include tasks and activities that can be completed in one sitting. Each task categorized as a Next Action should start with a verb that is specific and immediately actionable, rather than a verb that is vague and unclear. (See also actionable verb and vague verb.)

Notes—A storage place for reference information that does not require action.

OCR—Optical character recognition, the conversion of scanned documents into actual text that can be edited on a computer.

One More Thing Syndrome—Experienced by people who, when confronted with new technology or a new communication channel such as Twitter, react negatively due to the belief that they can’t handle, or aren’t interested in, “one more thing.” (See also early adopters.)

OS—Operating system, a computing platform.

OS X—Refers to the Mac operating system by Apple. (See also iOS.)

PIM—Personal information manager, an electronic tool (platform, software, or apps), such as Microsoft Outlook, or collection of tools that stores and organizes personal information. In the context of the Empowered Productivity System, a good PIM should incorporate email, tasks, calendar information, contacts, and notes.

platform-neutral tools—Tools that can be used on any operating system. Usually refers to Internet-based tools that can be accessed through any web browser.

preactive—The act of planning and strategizing; the prelude to “proactive.”

prioritizing by due date—The act of organizing tasks on a task list by assigning a specific due date to each task, within the context of the rest of the list, in order to offer a realistic assessment of one’s daily and ongoing workload.

proactive—The act of choosing what to allocate one’s time and attention to. (See also reactive.)

process/processing—A verb that refers to the act of assessing your commitments, communications, and information to determine what (if any) action or sequence of actions is required, when it’s required, and whether the item requires storage or discarding.

productive—Achieving or making progress on significant results. (See also signifi-cant result.)

productive time—The period of time between the unofficial start of your day (awake and preparing for the day) and the completion of the last piece of personal or profes-sional business for the day.

productivity—The extent to which you make progress on your significant results.

productivity methodology—A set of behaviors, techniques, and habits that form an effective process for managing personal and professional workflow.

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268Glossary

Projects—A category of tasks and activities on a task list for items that can only happen in multiple steps over multiple time periods; items categorized as Projects must have a definable beginning and end.

reactive—Inadvertently relinquishing control over your attention by automatically attending to whatever happens to demand it without exercising conscious thought over whether the interruption should be allowed. (See also proactive.)

reference information—Information that does not require action in and of itself. You keep it because you might need it later.

reminders—A feature of electronic tools that provides a visual and audible message at a particular time set by the user.

Reminders—Refers to both a component of Apple iCal software and an iPhone app in which tasks are stored.

responsive—The thoughtful and considered decision to attend to the demands of others rather than reflexively and automatically surrendering to others’ needs with-out considering those needs in the context of your own priorities. (See also reactive.)

sabotaging (one’s productivity and attention)—Engaging in habits that lead to dis-traction and fractured attention, impeding progress on significant results.

significant results—Goals that are personally lofty or important, in the context of an hour, a day, or a lifetime. (See also productive and productivity.)

Screen Invasion—A term coined by Matt Richtel referring to the constant presence of a screen (computer, phone, television, movie, and so on) experienced by users of modern technology.

shoulds—Nagging and undesirable tasks that typically have little effect on signifi-cant results that you attend to out of a sense of guilt. (See also Eisenhower Matrix.)

smartphone—A web-enabled mobile device that makes calls and also has advanced computing capabilities, including the ability to sync with a personal computer or the Internet and host apps, such as those for storing PIM data.

social media—Also known as social networks or social networking. Any web-enabled platform that allows one-to-many or many-to-many two-way communication that is generally somewhat public, although it might offer some privacy restrictions. Examples include Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.

Someday/Maybe—A category of items on a task list that seem like a good idea at the moment. These items may or may not be acted on in the future, but they definitely will not be acted on in the near future. This category is useful to assign to dreams, ambi-tions, and interesting ideas so they are not forgotten.

speed bumps—Habits that interfere with productivity by preventing the continual progression of tasks and activities; habits that sabotage rather than support the achievement of significant results.

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269Glossary

Stage 1 Productivity—Primarily reacting; continuously and reflexively attending to the demands of others.

Stage 2 Productivity—A blend of proactive and reactive behavior.

Stage 3 Productivity—Consistently making progress toward significant results and also incorporating time for planning, strategizing, and reflecting.

strong relationship to time—A task or activity has a strong relationship to time if failing to complete the task or activity on a specific day or on a specific day and at a specific time would have negative consequences usually related to other people. (See also calendar items and weak relationship to time.)

stylus—A type of instrument that provides the ability to write on an electronic device made for this purpose. (See also electronic paper.)

supporting (your productivity and attention)—Adopting habits that facilitate control over attention and focus, leading to progress on significant results. (See also sabotaging.)

System—The combination of the Empowered Productivity System methodology plus the prescribed use of integrated PIM support tools.

Talk To—A category for information that you need to share with other people at some point but not necessarily immediately; items on a Talk To list contain the names of people communicated with frequently and topics requiring discussion during the next encounter with that person. Add items to this list to ensure all necessary infor-mation is covered during that encounter.

task list—A place to store tasks and activities to be completed at no particular time (see also weak relationship to time); interchangeable with to-do list except when referring to the components of Microsoft Outlook, which has two distinct features, one called a Task List and one called a To-Do List.

Task List—A component of Microsoft Outlook where tasks are stored, organized, and tracked for completion.

T.E.S.S.T.™—A decision process that helps the user keep paper and email from creating clutter. It’s an acronym for

Take immediate action33

Empower yourself and others33

Suspend it to your Next Actions33

Store it for future reference33

Trash or recycle it33

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270Glossary

time-blocking—Making an appointment with yourself, which you schedule on your calendar, to devote time to a particular task or to be proactive in general.

time management—An outdated term to describe the act of taking conscious con-trol of the amount of time spent on specific tasks or activities. This term is outdated because how you spend your time is now only relevant to the extent that you also devote your attention to something. (See also attention management.).

to do list—Also seen as “to-do list.” A place to store tasks and activities to be com-pleted at no specific time (see also weak relationship to time); interchangeable with task list except when referring to the components of Microsoft Outlook, which has two distinct features, one called a Task List and one called a To-Do List.

To-Do List—a component of Microsoft Outlook that incorporates both tasks entered in the Task List, and also any item within Outlook that has been marked with the “flag” feature.

tools—A catch-all word for software, hardware, devices, apps (electronic tools), or paper products (paper tools) that can be used for a specific purpose related to produc-tivity or organization.

Two-Minute Rule—A component of the T.E.S.S.T. decision process that states that during processing time, if an action is encountered that will take approximately two minutes or less to be completed, it should be done when you encounter it. However, you should avoid implementing the Two-Minute Rule outside of processing time because it creates the opportunity for random thoughts to distract you from the task at hand.

unplugged—The situation of spending time away from technology and the Internet.

vague verb—A verb whose specific action is unclear, such as plan, develop, or imple-ment. (See also actionable verb.)

Waiting For—A category of items on a task list that are your responsibility, but that you can’t currently act upon because they require action by another person before you can complete the task or activity; your responsibility for items with a Waiting For category is to ensure that they are not forgotten and that you complete them after the information that is “waiting for” is provided.

weak relationship to time—A task or activity has a weak relationship to time if it could be accomplished at any time within a particular date range without directly affecting other activities or causing other notable consequences. (See also task list, to do list, and strong relationship to time.)

Weekly Update—A set of behaviors intended to be performed at least weekly that serves to create a habit of the effective behaviors of the Empowered Productivity System.

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